How was the Airbus BelugaXL Cargo Aircraft Born?

How did the Guppy come into being?

Guppies, an airplane produced by NASA for the Apollo program, look very strange at first glance. But this is actually a successful design, an airframe that shows great success. Despite its strange appearance, it was actually an airplane that meant a lot to NASA because of the tasks and functions it fulfilled.

The idea for the development of this aircraft was based on how to meet NASA's need for transport aircraft for the Apollo program. While trying to sell the idea of guppies to the Pentagon in Washington, an officer is said to have laughed during a meeting, saying, "That thing looks like a pregnant guppy!" Conroy, the aircraft's designer, was not offended by this nomenclature, but embraced it and renamed his design the Guppy. 

Everyone who saw the bizarre fuselage that emerged during the construction of this airplane couldn't help but say "this thing can't fly". In fact, the C-97 Stratotanker was the aircraft that was the source of the fuselage design of this strange airplane. In other words, it was the C-97, the military version of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser passenger plane. The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was developed as a derivative of the B-50 (based on the B-29) Superfortress developed in the 1940s. It was a passenger airplane with a two-story passenger cabin. It is believed to symbolize the golden age of air travel. Flights and Atlantic crossings in this plane are described as delightful and luxurious experiences, where people dressed in their best clothes to eat full meals served on board.

Surprisingly, Guppy, which achieved great success on its first flight, completed its test flights without any problems. Contrary to initial fears, it did not crash over any schools or suburban areas. The new airplane flew very stable and, despite its enormously enlarged fuselage, its speed was reduced by about 4% compared to the original Boeing 377. This was a negligible loss of speed. Based on the experience gained during the month-long tests and certification requirements, the engines were upgraded. The fuselage was redesigned to increase its durability. The cabin was pressurized and so these design improvements allowed the aircraft to cruise at higher altitudes. 

Now that the Guppies were capable of carrying more oversized cargo, NASA officially declared its interest in the aircraft. The Lunar Modules and Command Modules designed for the Apollo program were made transportable by the new aircraft. Many historic 'apparatus' were entrusted to the Guppy, including the Eagle and Columbia carried by Apollo 11, the first to set foot on the Moon.

Thereafter, the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy became famous as a large, wide-body freighter used to transport oversized cargo components. The first of the Guppy aircraft produced by Aero Spacelines was the 'Pregnant' Guppy, later colloquially called the 'Super Guppy'. In total, five Guppy aircraft were built in two different models.

The Super Guppy retained only the cockpit, wings, tail and main landing gear of the 377. Everything else was redesigned. Meanwhile, the nose landing gear was taken from the Boeing 707 and rotated 180 degrees and integrated into the aircraft. This made it possible to lower the front of the aircraft slightly and flatten the floor of the cargo compartment. This facilitated loading/unloading and ultimately cargo operations.

Airbus Beluga Takes the Stage

Airbus, a multinational aircraft manufacturer, started its operations as a consortium of British, French, German and Spanish aviation companies. The geographical location of these countries also determined the location of Airbus' production facilities. Airbus' production facilities in various locations emerged in direct relation to the specialized production areas and national interests of these countries, rather than cost-effectiveness.

As a production culture, Airbus relies on each of the partners producing a part of the aircraft. These large parts are then moved to a centralized location for final assembly. For example, the wings and landing gear are produced in the UK, the tail and doors in Spain, the fuselage in Germany, the nose and center fuselage in France, with Toulouse (France), Hamburg (Germany) or Seville (Spain) as the final assembly point.

As a result of this distributed production mechanism, it became apparent that an aircraft was needed to transport the large parts produced to the final assembly plants. In this context, in the early 1970s, two Super Guppy aircraft, which were almost obsolete in the USA at that time, were used by Airbus in Europe to transport aircraft parts produced by Airbus to other production facilities to the final assembly plant in Toulouse. Airbus has seen by close experience that it will continue to need such large aircraft within its own production mechanism. It then acquired the license to manufacture Guppy aircraft. In 1982 and 1983, two more Super Guppy aircraft were produced by Union de Transports Aériens Industries in France. Thus, Airbus had four Super Guppy aircraft. Later, these aircraft were replaced by Airbus Beluga aircraft, which could carry twice as much cargo in weight than the Guppies.

The Airbus A300-600ST (Super Transporter) or Beluga was the name Airbus gave to the cargo aircraft it used as a modified version of the standard A300-600 wide-body passenger aircraft to carry aircraft parts and oversized cargo. Initially, Airbus called these freighters the Super Transporter. However, the name Beluga, which looks like a whale, became a more popular name and the company officially started using the name Beluga. As of January 2020, the wider-bodied BelugaXL entered service.

TAI also uses the Beluga as part of the Airbus production chain

The issue also has a Turkish perspective. The products manufactured by TAI (Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc.), one of Airbus' component manufacturers, are transported by air from Ankara (Mürted) to Toulouse. At its facilities in Kahramankazan, Ankara, TAI has been successfully continuing the design and production of Airbus A350 XWB winglets, Airbus A330 rudders, Airbus A320 aircraft rear panels number 18 and 19, and rear fuselages.

For more than 20 years, Turkish Aerospace has been supplying thousands of parts and components to Airbus platforms, and its ongoing projects include the production of A350XWB Ailerons, A330 Steering Rudder, A320 Section 18 and Section 19. On July 20, 2022, TAI and Airbus signed three new cooperation contracts. The signed contract covers the barrier wall (sole source supplier) of the A350F, one of the newest platforms of wide-body cargo aircraft, A320 series 18 and 19 section assembly, and A320 series Mid Lower Fuselage Panels.  

Depending on the TAI production schedule, sometimes one Beluga aircraft per month, sometimes more, lands at Mürted and takes its place in the loading/unloading zone at TAI facilities, where the necessary loading/unloading operations are carried out using special equipment.